Editor’s Note:
Shortly after Allison Gill and I recorded this Substack Live, James Comey’s prosecutors claimed that there was an innocent explanation for the missing 2-hour-plus gap in the grand jury minutes before his indictment.
We’ll have more reporting and analysis on the government’s claims soon.
For now, catch up on what happened before the prosecution’s filing in the video above.
On the day a federal judge excoriated prosecutors over the appearance of a more than 2-hour gap in James Comey’s grand jury transcripts, Donald Trump’s former lawyer turned first time prosecutor Lindsey Halligan sat silently at the government’s table.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Whitaker, arguing on her behalf, didn’t say a word of explanation about what happened during that fateful time frame either.
On Friday, however, Halligan denied everything in a declaration: “There are no missing minutes, contrary to the suggestion raised by the court.”
On Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie announced in court that the transcript of Comey’s grand jury proceedings stopped at 4:28 p.m. Eastern Time for more than two hours until the return of the indictment at roughly 6:40 p.m. ET.
Halligan now insists that the grand jury was deliberating between those times.
Unlike with a trial jury, grand jury deliberations typically last a matter of minutes because there is no requirement of unanimity and a relatively light burden of proof for probable cause, former federal prosecutors say.
Judge Currie didn’t interrogate prosecutors about the time gap in the grand jury transcript during Thursday’s hearing because she is presiding over a narrow issue: whether Halligan was unlawfully appointed, and if so, whether to dismiss the indictments against Comey and James.
Comey and his prosecutors return to court on Wednesday for pre-trial proceedings before U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick, who also ordered the government to provide him with a copy of the grand jury transcripts.
All Rise News will be inside the courtroom to learn if any new details emerge about the grand jury proceedings during that hearing. Earlier this month, Fitzpatrick slammed the prosecutors over what he called their “indict first, investigate later” approach to Comey’s case. It remains to be seen whether he will question Halligan’s current explanation for why the grand jury transcript has such a long gap.
Read Halligan’s declaration here.
